What is infinity or what does it really mean when something is called infinite? Well if we were able to answer that one question, we probably could solve the many unsolved mysteries of this world. Infinity at its most general form means an indefinitely great amount and to find just exactly what really is this “indefinite ” amount was and still is one question many scientists have been trying to solve for the past couple of hundred of years. Ever since the first numerical system, humans made significant progress in the field of mathematics and physics. As a result of that significant progress, humans placed numbers and categorized those numbers with nice words like billion, trillion, and so on. Although these words explain how many zeros makes up a billion and trillion, it still doesn’t explain an end to these numbers. It is only upon knowing this fact that there are no just one finite number that can be dictated as an the end of an infinite amount, that many scientists brought up the topic of approximations called limits and used those approximations to explain a functions behavior as a certain variable approaches infinitely.
It is behind this key concept called the limit that much of calculus were created. Moreover, It is also from this idea of limits and approximation, that many measurements are taken and recorded. Almost everything in this world scientists look at to measure is based on some kind of approximation. An example of this can be the measurement of how many leaves and branches on a particular tree like in the picture above. For someone who doesn’t know how to make the exact measurement on say for instance, how many leaves are actually on a particular tree, is to find a method that takes an approximate value. It is basically this idea called limit approaching infinitely to a certain vague number, that many mathematicians still try to develop even today.
